Porter was in talks about a promotion before he resigned: report

Rob Porter was in serious discussions about a promotion in the White House before he resigned over domestic abuse allegations from his two ex-wives, CNN reported Tuesday.

Porter, the former White House staff secretary, had been pushing to expand his duties in the administration to speechwriting and policy.

Sources told CNN that Porter was also being considered for the deputy chief of staff position, which opened up after Jim Carroll stepped down to head the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

White House chief of staff John Kelly was reportedly supportive of promoting Porter. Kelly issued a vigorous defense of Porter when the first abuse allegations came to light, and questions remain about what he knew and when.

Porter was working without a permanent security clearance due to the allegations against him.

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday testified about the background check into Porter and said the White House was given multiple updates on the investigation.

“I can’t get into the content of what was briefed; what I can tell you is the FBI submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in March, and then a completed background investigation in late July,” Wray said.

“Soon thereafter we received request for follow-up inquiry, and we did the follow-up and provided that information in November, and then we administratively closed the file in January. And then earlier this month, we received additional information, and we passed that on as well.”

White House officials have given conflicting accounts of when they learned about the allegations although reports show the administration was at least aware of the main points of the allegations before they were made public last week.

Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the White House learned the full extent of the allegations against Porter last Tuesday.